February EYE Strategy Newsletter 

Nigeria vaccination campaigns

Last year, we sent a film crew to Taraba State, Nigeria, to document the yellow fever (YF) preventive vaccination campaigns. Nigeria vaccinated over 27 million people against yellow fever in 2021. Both films capture the impact of the EYE Strategy's partnership approach to eliminating yellow fever epidemics by 2026.

A community’s journey 

This film shows the impact of yellow fever on a community in Taraba State, starting with the story of Muhammed Awal who lost one of his children to the disease, and his efforts to protect the rest of his family.  

Yellow fever vaccination campaign, Taraba State 

This film shows the extent of the effort, resources and planning it takes to ensure YF vaccination campaigns are successfully implemented with the support of all the EYE partners.

Thanks to our contributors from the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Taraba State Primary Health Care Development Agency, World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI).  

Country updates 

Chad  

The reactive YF vaccination campaign was completed with coverage of >1.1 million people, including ~15,000 nomads and ~10,000 refugees in Melfi and Mandoul, with support from partners including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), UNICEF and WHO. The campaign was approved by the International Coordinating Group for Vaccine Provision (ICG) with support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Ghana  

Thanks to our partners UNICEF for providing photos from the implementation of the recent YF vaccination campaign in Ghana. ©UNICEF / BUTA

There is a continuation of the outbreak, which led to a second phase of reactive vaccination campaigns implemented in February. The activities were planned in 40 sub-districts of seven regions. Sub-districts have been selected based on local epidemiology in Ashanti, Bono, Eastern, Greater Accra, Oti, Savannah and Upper West.   

This phase of reactive vaccination is supplementary to the activities completed in December 2021. In total, these campaigns are expected to protect over 850,000 people and have been approved by ICG, with support from Gavi.  

Meet the Partners 

public health collaborations and multidisciplinary networks, and is a consultant and instructor to preparedness and response to outbreak activities for diagnosis and surveillance of emerging viral diseases in middle- and low-income countries in collaboration with WHO, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). 

Dr Domingo has previously worked at the Spanish National Microbiology Centre at the Institute of Health Carlos III, as Public Health virologist in the Program for Control and Surveillance of Imported Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers, and the Robert Koch Institute within the Unit of Highly Pathogenic Viruses.  

Since 2016, she has been part of EYE's LTWG and since January 2022, co-chair of the LTWG with Dr Chantal Reusken. 

Events  

Further EYE webinars are planned for Q2 in 2022 on the topics of urban preparedness for outbreaks and understanding complex laboratory results. Please await further updates. 

Publications  

Research article* 

The 2017–2018 yellow fever virus (YFV) outbreak in south-eastern Brazil marked a re-emergence of YFV in urban states that had been YFV-free for nearly a century. Unlike earlier urban YFV transmission, this epidemic was driven by forest mosquitoes. The objective of this study was to evaluate environmental drivers of this outbreak. You can read the full study here. 

Research article* 

Yellow Fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease endemic in tropical Africa and Latin America and is transmitted through infected mosquitoes. The earliest outbreak of yellow fever in Nigeria was reported in Lagos in 1864 with subsequent regular outbreaks reported until 1996. A large epidemic of yellow fever occurred in Oyo State in April and May 1987 following an epidemic of sylvatic yellow fever in Eastern Nigeria the previous year. For 21 years, no further confirmed cases were reported until September 2017 following which Nigeria has been responding to successive outbreaks. The renewed onset of yellow fever outbreaks in Nigeria followed a global trend of reports and from other African countries. Yellow Fever disease has no cure, but control is through vaccination and vector control. Eliminating Yellow fever Epidemic (EYE) strategy to improve high-risk countries’ prevention, preparedness, detection, management, and response to yellow fever outbreaks was developed by the WHO in 2017 and launched in Nigeria in April 2018. Yet, poor vaccination coverage continues to be a cause for concern. You can read the full study here.

*This has not been peer-reviewed by the EYE Strategy or any of its partners.